Passage # 1—John Crevecoeur

The passage is from “Letters from an American Farmer” by John Crevecoeur in a letter entitled “What is an American?” The speaker is James, a fictional American farmer used by Crevecoeur to write these letters to a fictional person.

This passage is comparing American society to British/European society. In America everything is so new and undeveloped that people are more equal. No royal family is in charge, or even a powerful form of government. People in America had to work together to make it, relying on the earth and the farmers to live. Everyone had to work hard, keeping the poor and the wealthy close...